Paladin Buff Assignments, the ultimate headache

Enough about me, back to being a full time paladin. One of the tasks I’ve passed onto others is my ultimate control over Pally Power. Now, blessing/aura assignments are not as crazy as they were back in the day (7 buffs omfg, I needed a list of who would be at the raid at least an hour beforehand to start working on assignments) and my guild has so many paladins (totally my doing) that it’s rarely complicated. But, being the control freak that I am, I wanted to make sure that all our pallies had something they could reference if they had to set buffs and weren’t too sure where to start. And, since you’d be surprised at how many people have paladin questions that they don’t dare to ask, I’m posting an generalized version here.

Before I get started, I want to mention that you will need to be group leader (in a 5 man) or raid assist (note, “main assist” and “raid assist” are two different things) to be able to modify other people’s buffs in Pally Power. Now on with the show.

Who wants what:

1- Most classes will want kings as their priority buffs except:
Rogues: Might
Prot paladins: Sanc, for the most part
Some DKs : Might

2- Then might/wis as needed.
Druids: Ferals needs might, all the others use wis.
Shamans: Enhancement (melee) uses might, all others, wis.
Hunters: Usually might before wis, but each one has their own preferenceIf you’re not sure, just ask someone what buff they want.

3- Sanc reduces damage taken by 3% so it can be useful as a third or fourth blessing for anyone when there’s a lot of raid damage.
Prot paladins: Sanc helps our mana regen and has the stam and strength bonus of kings so we can use this as our priority buff. The only stat we’re missing here is the agility. Kings can be used over sanc in fights where the damage is enough to keep us at full mana.
All other tanks: I would prioritize kings, then might and use sanc third, unless they specifically want/need the 3% damage reduction.

Who assigns what:

Kings: Anyone can do kings, so I assign it last, or to someone who may have to change specs during the raid.
Sanc: Only a prot pally can do sanc.
Might: Ret pallies and some Holy pallys have improved might. If no pally in the raid has improved might, you can skip it if you have a warrior in the raid with improved battle shout.
Wisdom: Most Holy pallies will have improved wisdom. If no pally in the raid has improved wisdom, you can skip it if you have a shaman in the raid with improved mana stream totem.

Overlap with other classes:

Warriors with improved battle shout can do the equivalent of improved might.
Shamans with improved mana stream totem can do the equivalent of improved wisdom.

Auras:

Ret pally does retribution aura
Prot pally does devotion aura (I have improved devotion aura in holy spec as well, as may other holy pallies)
Holy pally does concentration aura.If there’s no one left to do a needed elemental resistance aura, I’ll either assign it to the person doing concentration or to someone who won’t forget.

Other tips

– As much as possible, try to assign one buff type per paladin. It makes managing things much easier.
– Try to avoid assigning 10 minute buffs to anyone other than yourself. Sometimes it’s worth missing a buff or having the wrong one just to cut down on explaining time and reminders. This won’t work if you’re in a min/maxing guild, but a min/maxing player wouldn’t be studying paladin basics on my blog anyway. The only classes who might ever require 10 min buffs are druids, shamans and paladins.
– If you have more paladins than buffs, you can split kings between 2 pallies which makes everyone feel included and saves on reagents.
– On newer versions of pally power, you can see who has improved buffs/auras by the +2/3/7 next to their buff icons on the far left side. It’s not always accurate, though, so when it doubt, ask.
– Anytime someone complains of a lack of buff while you’re corpse running or drinking, replace their buff with old spice. (courtesy of Kaleb – who doesn’t play a paladin, but who supports our cause)